Today Warwickshire Climate Alliance has released its detailed response to the County Council's Sustainable Futures Strategy.
We believe that the Sustainable Futures Strategy is hamstrung by the lack of resources that the Council is willing to devote to ensuring a sustainable future. One of the most disturbing weaknesses in the Strategy is its failure to aim for net zero by 2050, despite this being a UK Government priority. The Council's strategy, if pursued, would achieve only for a 40% reduction on emissions across the county, and would rely on offsetting for the remaining reduction. We believe this reliance is unrealistic.
On the positive side, we are heartened that the Council wishes that a community powered approach should be central to the Sustainable Futures Strategy, and is committed to continue to engage and strengthen partnership working with local climate and community groups. Warwickshire is home to great energy and expertise on issues related to the climate emergency. We believe that the Council’s climate emergency plans would benefit from the greater involvement of this local expertise. To achieve this, we propose that the Council should set up specialist forums, made up of local experts, for each of the six themes presented here, to provide input into the further development of the Council’s plans. As an umbrella organisation including several community groups and networks, Warwickshire Climate Alliance and the Low Carbon Warwickshire Network would be well placed to assist in the identification of members of such panels.
The Warwick District Green Party has also released its response to the Sustainable Futures Strategy, accessible via our Warwickshire County Council page.
